Icons

DRAFT

Icons are used by Marks and Waypoints. See Marks Icons are also used for Opencpn control buttons. These can be represented as raster images (pixels) or in Vector format (svg) which is a W3C xml format. SVG files can be viewedd and edited with text editors such as Notepad++. I would suggest just viewing them until you understand the format.

Please see the User Manual User Icons page and the Resources Page for User Icons

We are going to assume that you are skilled at image creation, editing and manipulation. Some people use Inkscape or Gimp opensource Image Editors, both of these can create svg icons. Coreldraw is another good program to use.

1. Mark Icons C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 4.6.1\uidata\ under the markicons directory.
2. User Interface Icons C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 4.6.1\uidata\ under traditional, journeyman and journeyman_flat directories.
3. User Icons C:\ProgramData\opencpn\UserIcons.
4. Ocpn_Draw Icons C:\ProgramData\opencpn\uidata but these are primarily raster Icons.

Icons are first created as raster files with the following characteristics:

• Resolution: 18mm x 18mm (32×32 or 28×28 pixels for Button Icons)
• Color depth: External Link
• Transparency:

One opensource program that can be used to convert to SVG is https://vectormagic.com/ - any special settings.

• Where the icon is located in the file system.
• Various classes of icons (which you have mapped out in the thread)
• Any particular details about using icons that the user should know.

A brief description of how the icon system works. Icons are stored in C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 4.6.2\uidata under various directories.

The User Interface Icons are stored under Traditional, Journeyman, Journeyman_Flat directories. There are raster sheets of each of the 3 User Interface Icon systems. I believe these are used when the svg icons are not used. I do not know how these sheets are created.

Mark Icons are stored under C:\Program Files (x86)\OpenCPN 4.6.2\uidata\markicons as svg files. One file for each icon. In addition to that there are several other icons for controlling the mark icon list. iconAll, iconMinimum, iconRMinus, iconRPlus, iconStandard, iconUserStd, all I do not know how these will be used.

Bdbcat proposes to implement the following in v 4.6.2:

1. Change the sort order of the Mark→Properties icon list such that the existing legacy (4.6.1) icons appear at the top of the list. These are the icons we all know and love from legacy OCPN, and include the defaults (triangle, diamond, etc) that are used for initial mark and waypoint creation. The new extended selection of MarkIcons will still appear, after the legacy group. And then the UserIcons (if any) will appear after that group

2. Allow one to manually delete icons from the list by removing the .svg file from the relevant directory after installation of OCPN. This does not quite work right now, but I will fix it so that it does. A user may then remove any icons they don't want hanging around, or move them to the UserIcons folder if they like.

After having looked at a lot of imported GPX files where the new icons always come in as boring circles, I think having a rich set of built-in icons that can be used for effective sharing of GPX files is a good thing.

Currently it is a simple drop down scroll from Waypoint Properties. Which is simple and quick. How to improve it?

• Favorite
• Hide
• Sort
• Find

Would it be possible to display the icons in order of most recently used at the top (or most frequently used)? For most of us this will put our favourite 10 or so items at the top of the list (after we had used them once) - the remainder could then be ordered in the alphabetical groups as they are now.

Also we can create some links back to the icon libraries on the main page.

Speaking for myself, I have no problem with the large number of icons. In fact, the more the better when it comes to sharing GPX files with others! However, I do agree that we need a method to allow each user to make a more manageable list. I'll probably never use more than 10% of these icons, but I like knowing that if I use an icon, and I transfer that GPX file to another user, that they will already have that same icon available on their machine.

Keep all the icons and add 100 more if you like. But we should allow each user the ability to customize the list so his favorite icons appear first in this list. I propose a very simple system where we can have a star at the end of each Icon description. Click it to make the Icon a favorite and it turns gold. The next time you pull up the list for icons, the ones you have starred will appear at the top of the list. Click again and it reverts back to a normal icons. The remaining icons will appear further down the list if you ever need a new one. This would satisfy cruisers, racers, fisherman and any other group.

People will use waypoints for purposes other than bringing a chart up to date. In the case of Dredging, I currently had a need to mark an area where dredging is taking place and the dredging will continue for several years into the future. An Icon for that to identify dredging is appropriate. I might want to email a fellow cruiser the location of a dredging operation. Using the proper icon makes it that much easier to see and understand.

On at least 5 different occasions I have built routes to track the position and forecast of tropical storm systems. Every time I've done this, I wished I had the icon for a hurricane or tropical storm. I would like to see the symbols added to indicate the forecasted position of a cyclone or tropical storm, perhaps the same symbols, only in black and white. I would probably never use any other weather symbols, but others may want to use them and I'm all for adding them.

I still believe there is a good use for the Usericons. Of course you can still use it to make and use your own personal icons if you choose, but I think it's greater purpose would be to override what you see on your system for a particular icon. If you find you don't like the Anchorage icon and you'd rather see a great big Pink Anchor you can copy the Icon to the UserIcon folder and give it the same name as the standard Anchorage Icon. When the Anchorage Icon is displayed on your system you'll see a big pink anchor. If you transfer that waypoint to another user, they will see the standard icon. This would allow each individual to customize what they see on the screen, yet preserve the same icon name so it can be shared with others.

I also agree with the suggestion that Icons from the UserIcons folder have a prefix of Usericon, to distinguish them from the standard icons.

There have been some great suggestions for new icons. Those which are of particular interest to racers and fisherman should all be created and added. AS much as this community has in common, we are also a very diverse group whose boating interests and needs vary. We should try our best to accommodate everyone.